YRRR: Outbreak
by Samyblizs
Summary: A short one-shot inspired by a game of RWBY: Grimm Eclipse.


_It's been five months since the outbreak started. Everyone I know has been turned. Weiss and Blake were the first to go. It makes sense... I mean, they had so much contact with the source, and nobody knew what was happening until it happened. I should have closed our room's door, tired to contain it somehow, but I was too shocked at what my two teammates had become to move. They stood completely still, staring at me... Then, with unmatched speed, they ran past me, infecting the entire school with the virus. A handful of us were able to barricade ourselves in Headmaster Ozpin's office after he was turned. Ruby couldn't come with us... Everyone was too suspicious of her, even Jaune, who had taken leadership of our group, and no matter how much I claimed she was fine, they wouldn't let her in... Before I followed them and closed the main door and the Secure Anti Fracture Emergency door, I told Ruby to go back to our room and wait. I told her everything would be alright soon..._

"Uh, Yang? What are you doing?" a familiar, young-sounding voice said to the blonde sitting in a pile of rubble, who stared down at her scroll as she continued typing.

 _It's all my fault... It should have been obvious when the communication towers stopped working that the power stations would be next. I guess I was hoping the infection wouldn't spread so fast... But still... It was stupid of me not to close the S.A.F.E. door, but I had to make sure Ruby was okay, and I couldn't leave Weiss and Blake to become lost in the mob..._

"Hello? Remnant to Yang?" the same voice said, only this time it was off to Yang's right.

 _Once everyone was sleeping, I snuck out, bringing as much food as I could carry. I didn't pick anything sweet to avoid as much commotion as possible. It was the right choice, as after I had found what used to be Weiss and Blake and brought them to our room, I was being followed by dozens of infected. They all looked sad as I pushed my friends in and shut the door. I didn't care, I was just happy to see my one-and-only Ruby sitting on her bed._

"She looks pretty focused on whatever she's typing." the third person with Yang said, her voice sounding exactly like the other two.

 _That's when the power went out... As soon as I heard the screams of joy, I knew the main door had automatically opened and the horde was turning the survivors. They couldn't fight back... Nobody wanted to. The moment they set eyes on one of the infected, they too would become one..._

Yang finally looked up from her scroll, her gaze meeting three pairs of silver eyes before she looked down and finished her message.

 _I have yet to find someone who hasn't been turned into a Ruby. I don't know why I'm immune... Or why I'm even writing this... With all the communication towers down, it's not like I can send this anywhere... Still... If something happens to me and anyone finds this... I'm sorry..._

With a heavy sigh, Yang closed her scroll and stood, looking again at her trio of sisters. It disturbed her to see the faces of three identical Rubies, let alone everyone in the world. Because of this, Yang refused to enter cities or towns in broad daylight, instead choosing to sneak in at night to steal whatever supplies the four of them needed. This also meant clothing, and months after first changing, Yang had completely lost track of which Ruby was who.

"Yang? Are you okay?" one of the Rubies asked, causing Yang to nod in response.

"Yeah... I'm fine."

"Really? You don't look fine." another Ruby said.

"Please, don't worry. Everything's fine... I just-"

"Are you upset because you don't know who's who? 'Cause I'm sure we can figure it out this time!" the third Ruby blurted.

"Yeah!" one of the other two chimed in, "If we just focus really hard, then-"

"No!" Yang burst, causing the three Rubies to flinch. Yang took a deep breath and spoke again, softly, "I'm sorry... But we just shouldn't bother anymore. You all have the exact same memories and thoughts of Ruby. If we still had Crescent Rose I'm sure you would all fight exactly the same too."

Yang immediately regretted mentioning the lost weapon as she saw the forlorn faces of the girls with her. A few weeks after escaping from Beacon, Yang had gone back to get her team's weapons, only to find her sister's missing, most likely taken by one of the many other Rubies believing it to be hers.

"Anyway..." she continued, trying to change the subject, "We should keep going. It's almost dark, and we still need to get to the communications tower."

"Why do we need to reach it before dark?" the Ruby who Yang had given Myrtenaster to asked.

"Because, Mountain Glenn has lots of unstable buildings and pits." Yang answered, "Don't you remember what happened last time we were here?"

"Yes." the three Rubies said in unison.

"Should've seen that coming..." Yang sighed, drooping her shoulders as she walked through the rubble. The Rubies holding Weiss and Blake's weapons followed, while the one equipped with Yang's shot-gauntlets paused for a moment before following.

* * *

It was dusk by the time Yang and her trio of sisters reached the communications tower, leaving them with barley enough light to check the tower's circuits. The good news was that everything looked intact, despite being abandoned for so long. The bad news was neither Yang nor Ruby had any idea how to activate the tower. After hours of working on it with no success, Yang had become so frustrated she punched the main power box and stormed off. The three Rubies were thankful their pseudo-leader wasn't wearing her gauntlets, or else the power box might not have existed anymore. The Ruby wearing Ember Celica had gone out to search for Yang, only to find her sitting at the edge of a cliff, staring up at the night sky.

"Uh... Hey, Yang... How... How are you doing?" Ruby asked.

"Oh... Hey, Ruby." Yang answered quietly, "I'm alright... Just thinking..." Ruby fidgeted as a few moments passed with neither girl speaking before Yang continued, "Ruby, can you sit with me for a sec? I wanna ask you something."

"Oh, uh... Sure." Ruby said and walked over to Yang, sitting cross-legged next to her, "So... What did you want to ask?"

"Well... I know I've already asked all three of you this a lot already, and because of that I already know what you're gonna say, but... I have to know... Are you the original Ruby? Are you my real sister?" Yang pleaded, remembering all the times the Rubies with her fought, each one claiming to be the real one.

Ruby sat there, staring at the quivering eyes of the girl next to her. Whether or not her memories were hers or just copied memories, she had never seen this side of Yang before. Finally she couldn't take it anymore and broke eye contact, instead looking down at the yellow bracelets around her wrists, "I... I don't know... I'm not sure I can trust my memories to be mine..."

Yang's eyes went wide, but then softened as she smiled sadly, "Y-yeah... Heh... Kinda selfish, huh? Here I am complaining about missing one person while the whole world's gone to hell..."

Ruby smirked and lightly shoved Yang, "Hey, come on, Yang. I may or may not be the original Ruby, but I still have memories of you. You would always smile through everything. No matter what happened, you would always find a bright side!"

Yang returned the young girl's smirk and looked back up at the broken moon, "Hm... Well, we don't need to worry about grimm anymore. With a world's worth of enthusiastic young huntresses, it didn't take very long 'til they were extinct. And any criminals floating around were either infected or defeated _then_ infected."

"See? I knew you could find a silver lining!" Ruby said, grinning like Yang had seen many times back when things were normal.

Yang looked down and rubbed her bare wrists, "Yeah... I guess it just took everyone becoming exactly the same for the fighting to stop..."

"Yang! You're thinking sad thoughts again! Besides, I don't think that's right. Remember, I think that..." Ruby trailed off as she and Yang heard footsteps behind them. Lots of footsteps. They stood up and walked closer to the footsteps, coming face-to-face with what a non-infected would describe as the most adorable army in history.

"Uh... What are you all doing here?" Yang asked the mass of Rubies staring at her, the moonlight reflecting off their flawless silver eyes.

"We brought them." the crowd parted to allow two Rubies to walk forward, one holding Myrtenaster and one holding Gambol Shroud.

"You two?" the Ruby with Yang asked.

The two Rubies they were traveling with nodded before the one holding Blake's weapon spoke up, "Yang, we know you aren't comfortable around so many copies of your sister, but there's something they want you to know."

"Wait... 'They'? As in every single one?" Yang questioned, causing one of the Rubies to step forward.

"Yes." said the Ruby, who was wearing a very familiar bowler hat, "You're the one who's been stealing supplies, aren't you?"

"W-well... I was just doing that because... Uh..." Yang stuttered, unsure of how to respond.

"Don't worry about it. That's not why we're here." the hat-wearing Ruby said, "Or... I mean it kind of is, but-"

"Back to the point," another Ruby said, this one wearing a shirt with a sloth on it, "Yang, since you've only been entering the city at night, you have no idea what we've all been doing."

"Yeah! We aren't mindless of what happened! Well... Now we're not anyway... But that's why we're trying to fix things!" a Ruby wearing glasses burst.

"Huh? What do you mean 'fix things'? Do you mean a cure?" Yang asked hopefully.

"What? Of course not! What do we look like? Scientists?" one of the Rubies said.

"I actually kinda do!" another Ruby wearing a yellow tie answered.

"Hey, Rubies! Focus!" the one with Myrtenaster yelled.

"Oh, sorry..." the tie-wearing Ruby said, "Anyway, we don't even know why the Ruby Virus happened, so we can't really figure out how to cure it, but we have been trying to keep everything the same until we can figure it out."

"Keep everything the same? I don't understand." Yang admitted.

"Well, we said we were trying to fix everything, and that's how we're doing it!" hat-wearing Ruby said happily, "We know all of us but one was once another person, so we're all learning different jobs to keep everything the way it was before!"

"You're doing that to keep everything the way it was?" the Ruby still standing next to Yang asked, "So... You're like a-"

"An entire functioning society of nothing but Rubies? Pretty much." sloth-Ruby said.

Yang shook her head, "Okay, but that doesn't change the fact that you're all Ruby. You're all exactly the same!"

"True..." the Ruby with Blake's weapon said, "But that means we all love you. No Ruby on Remnant would want to hurt you in any way..."

"R-really?" Yang said, watching as every Ruby in the mob smiled and nodded.

"And to prove it, we've come to ask you something." the Ruby with glasses announced, stepping forward.

"What?" Yang asked.

"We want you to find any survivors you can and keep them safe." she said.

Yang blinked, processing what she just heard, "Survivors? You mean there's still some people left?!"

"But I thought everyone in the world was turned into a Ruby!" the girl with Ember Celica exclaimed.

"Nope!" hat-Ruby grinned, "Uh, I mean yes! To the first question! Not the second! The second one was... Yes to Yang, no to Ruby! Anyway, Rubies from around the world have told us there are small pockets of normal people left, doing whatever they can to avoid us!"

"But... I don't get it. Why are you telling me this? Shouldn't you be stopping at nothing to turn them?" Yang asked.

"Because we want to help people..." Yang turned her head to the Ruby next to her, who had a determined look on her face, "That's why I wanted to become a huntress in the first place... But now we can't because we'll try to turn them... And that's hurting you too..."

Sloth-Ruby walked up and put her hand on Yang's shoulder, "We know a cure will be found someday. But until then, someone needs to remind people that there's still hope left..."

Yang's eyes went wide as two more Rubies emerged from the crowd, carrying with them a weapon that was cemented in Yang's memory, "I-is that..?"

The Rubies nodded and held the weapon out to Yang, "We were never able to decide who should hang onto her. Guess we still have a lot of growing up to do..." one said.

"So we thought you should have her." the other said, "At least so you have a piece of your sister with you..."

Yang took the weapon, almost cradling it in her arms as she gazed across the nearly countless Rubies, "You're all serious about this, aren't you?" they all nodded in response. She then turned to the three Rubies she had been traveling with for months, "And you?"

All three looked at each other before the one with Ember Celica spoke, "Yang... I don't want us to be apart... None of us do... But we also don't want to see you sad! So we're going to try and keep things as normal as possible until everything can be fixed!" she then smiled the warmest smile Yang had ever seen, "You helped me grow into a great person... Now it's time for you to do the growing..."

Yang gazed into her eyes which, while still the eyes of an innocent, were burning with determination and faith, "Ruby..." she said, taking a step forward and hugging the girl in front of her while still gripping the weapon.

"-!" ember-Ruby gasped, trying to escape being crushed by her greatest asset and Yang's assets.

"It's a good thing Ruby isn't the jealous type." a Ruby said.

"I don't know... I don't have any positive memories of Yang's bear hugs..." another said, earning both giggles and shudders from the horde.

Yang finally released the younger girl and walked to the edge of the cliff, taking out her scroll as she did. She opened the message she had written earlier and read it, her finger hovering over the 'erase' button the whole time. When she finished she turned and looked across the mass Rubies, a range of emotions showing on their faces. Yang walked towards them and closed her scroll, leaving the message intact. Smirking, she unfolded her new weapon and leaned it across her shoulder, "Well, at least I'll have a great bedtime story for Ruby after this is over..."


End file.
